82 A IX GALERICULATA 



springtime were unpalatable on account of their having eaten the roe of dead fish. 

 It would be very surprising if these ducks were really below par in food value. 



Behavior in Captivity. I am unable to determine whether the Mandarin was 

 sent alive to Europe previous to 1747, but at that time Edwards drew his plate from 

 a living specimen in the gardens of Sir Matthew Decker, Bart., at Richmond in Sur- 

 rey. Since that time it has been very commonly kept in all public collections and 

 many private parks; and it was first bred in London about seventy years ago. It is 

 almost as well adapted as an ornament to small ponds and aviaries as its American 

 relative, the Carolina Duck, breeding commonly, at least in Europe. P. L. Sclater 

 (1880), however, noticed that even in the London Gardens it bred somewhat less 

 freely than the latter and even Mr. Blaauw told me that he never had much of any 

 luck with them and considered it a hard species to breed. For some unaccount- 

 able reason, it seems also to be difficult to rear in America, and my own experience 

 with it has been far from encouraging for it has only bred in my pond once or twice 

 and then laid few eggs. 



The birds climb as well as Carolina Ducks, if not better, and they caused more 

 trouble than the latter by making away over the wire fences. I was never able to 

 keep them safely until I clipped their toes or placed a T-shaped wire on the top of the 

 fence which surrounded the pond. 



In general it may be said that Mandarins are of a more restless disposition than 

 Carolina Ducks, not quite so tame, and somewhat more nocturnal in their habits. 

 It is scarcely necessary to enlarge upon the breeding habits of confined specimens, 

 for they lay in various sorts of artificial nest-boxes and mingle amicably with the 

 Carolina Ducks in all their activities. The males enter the boxes, ordinarily accord- 

 ing to Rogeron (1903) before the female, when the couple is on a tour of inspection. 

 On the whole one should provide that the sexes are equally represented in numbers; 

 but where there is a slight excess of females no lessening of fertility seems to result, 

 for males are somewhat polygamous under these conditions. Rogeron noticed among 

 the superfluous females that each attached herself to a particular couple. She was 

 treated by the male as an inferior and not as a true mate! It goes without saying 

 that a small excess of females is far preferable to an excess of males on a breeding 

 pond. 



Both Rogeron (1903) and Meade-Waldo (1912), who kept free-flying Mandarins, 

 speak of their taking considerable flights during the breeding season and nesting at 

 some distance from the home pond. One pair was absent a full week, but returned 

 safely. Rogeron found that his females were fully productive when one year old, but 

 he is inclined to think that ordinarily young males are less reliable as breeders than 

 are the older birds, and when he lost one of his older males, for some years a lessened 

 egg-production resulted (which, however, is not actually a proof of infertility). 



